José Vasconcelos Ferreira

Model-Based Systems Engineering: An Emerging Approach for Modern Systems

To engineer the modern large, complex, interdisciplinary systems-of-systems (SoS), the collaborative world teams must “speak” the same language and must work on the same “matter.” The “matter” is the system model and the communication mechanisms must be supported by standard, flexible, and friendly modeling languages. The evolving model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach is leading the way and is expected to become a standard practice in the field of systems engineering (SE) in the next decade. As an emerging paradigm for the systems of the 21st century, it seems useful to overview its current state of the art concerning the developing standards, the embryonic formalisms, the available modeling languages, the methodologies, and the major applications.

Intelligent urban traffic: A guide through micro modelling approaches

The local authorities have a fundamental role in improving the traffic & environment system of their urban jurisdictions. Locally developed tailor-made solutions, based on active public participation processes, are essential to make the city more attractive, cleaner and healthier thus, a better place to live, work, and play. This challenge, of sustainable urban transportation, demands a comprehensive holistic approach able to cope with the complexity, multidisciplinarity, and socio-technical dimension of the system-of-interest. The environmental aspect of sustainability is critical being at the agenda of the modern world. Modelling the traffic and the related environmental impacts at the micro level is decisive to describe adequately the urban dynamics, to provide personalized real-time information, to test Intelligent Transportation Systems strategies and evaluate their impacts, and to support accurate decision-making processes. This work highlights the relevance of this micro modelling approach, particularly for traffic & air quality, providing a guide through the existing modelling approaches and suggesting the appropriated models and tools to undertake the green mission.

Improving the Production Performance and Ergonomic Aspects Using Lean and Agile Concepts

RESEARCH ARTICLE Improving the Production Performance and Ergonomic Aspects Using Lean and Agile Concepts Marlene Ferreira Brito, Ana Luísa Ferreira Andrade Ramos, Paula Carneiro, Maria Antónia Gonçalves, José António de Vasconcelos Ferreira and Ana Beatriz Tavares Frade Research Center of Mechanical Engineering (CIDEM), DEGEIT University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal GOVCOPP Research Centre, DEGEIT – University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal ALGORITMI Centre, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal Research Center of Mechanical Engineering (CIDEM), ISEP Polytechnique of Porto, Porto, Portugal DEGEIT – University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

A Simulation-Based Analysis of a Gas Filling Process

Simulation models are a powerful engineering tool to analyze the performance of complex systems enabling the comparison of different scenarios and the evaluation of a considerable set of dynamic key performance indicators. This dynamic evaluation supports decision-making by helping operations managers to compare options and to choose the best course of action. This work presents a real-world industry case study illustrating the advantages of using simulation to analyze the current system and evaluate different scenarios of operation. The case study refers to a gas filling process which combines a continuous part (gas tanks’ operation) with a discrete one (filling of gas into the cylinders). The mishmash of continuous and discrete operations is a challenge for modelling & simulation, involving a combined approach not always easy to accomplish. Results lead to the conclusion that the company is able to keep the production levels while reducing the number of dedicated tanks, thus opening up the possibility of exploring other business opportunities.

Improving the productivity of a packaging line using lean manufacturing tools and simulation

This work describes the utilization of lean manufacturing tools and simulation to improve the operations and the productivity of a packaging line of visual communication boards at Bi-silque S.A., one of the most recognized Portuguese companies in its business area. The case study reported in this paper is the outcome of the business internship program sponsored by the Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering of University of Aveiro for the students in the Industrial Management and Engineering master program. The system-in-analysis, the packaging line, is one of the most important lines of the company being in charge of packaging visual communications boards (memos) from several upstream assembly lines. The packaging line was clearly unbalanced and the throughput was below the necessary target (to meet market demand). The operation of the line was stabilized, the main problems were identified and a line balancing action was performed with productivity improvements of about 40%. It was also developed a simulation study, for this line, in order to evaluate the utilization of a material handling robot. The outcome of the study was taken into account by the decision-makers and some recommendations are being implemented. This work is a case study highlighting the advantage of using a experiential learning approach on industrial engineering courses and evidencing the benefits that SMEs can get from the use of lean manufacturing tools and simulation to improve their operations.

Model-Based Systems Engineering Tools

The GUILTE (Guiding Urban InteLligent Traffic & Environment) system is part of a large, complex, interdisciplinary, socio-technical domain at the agenda of world leaders, local authorities, academia, and society-at-large. The main purposes of the system are to provide an integrated development framework for the municipalities, and to support the operations of the urban traffic through Intelligent Transportation Systems, highlighting two fundamental aspects: the evaluation of the related environmental impacts, and the dissemination of information to the citizens, endorsing their involvement and participation. The development process of the GUILTE system was supported by a novel Model-Based Systems Engineering methodology, the LITHE (Agile Systems Modelling Engineering), which aims to lightening the complexity and burdensome of the existing methodologies by emphasizing agile principles such as continuous communication, feedback, stakeholders involvement, short iterations and rapid response, and also by a graphical tool, the GRAPHITE matrices, developed to support model-based cooperative development environments.

Dynamic analysis of manufacturing cells: a dedicated simulation library and an empirical simulation study

The design of cellular manufacturing systems (CMS) is a complex decision process that, in general, has to be decomposed into several sub-problems. Analytical techniques have been used to tackle each of these sub-problems individually but its usage is limited when designing real-world CMS. Simulation tools enable the decision maker to capture the dynamic nature of CMS allowing the test of different designs and their evaluation through a wide set of performance measures. This research describes the structural modelling and implementation of a simulation template (simulation library) for the dynamic analysis of cellular manufacturing systems and illustrates its utilisation in the development of a real simulation study. The template was modelled using object-oriented concepts and some of its components were implemented in the simulation software ArenaO. The utilisation of the template in real CMS scenarios is allowing its validation and its continuous enhancement.